Foreword

 The one great pitfall for anyone interested in his or her family history is to defer its final writing up because “one never quite has all the facts". There is always something that has to be confirmed about this line, or more definitely researched about that branch. The temptation is constantly there to keep putting off the writing of the family history until one has acquired complete information. The problem with this approach is that every new scrap of evidence gathered, while adding one more little piece to complete the jigsaw puzzle, at the same time raises new questions, opens up other lines of enquiry. And so the fascinating part ‑ the detective work ‑ goes on, but the hard part - the bringing together, the interpreting and the writing up of the many bits and pieces of information into a coherent story ‑ is postponed.

Thus, I have finally decided to plunge into the writing having convinced myself that it is better to have a story with gaps and possible inaccuracies (that can be filled and corrected later) than to have no story at all.

I shall write the story of the family in the following stages:

Stage 1: The story of John Power and Mary Donovan together with a brief account of the lives of each of their 15 children.

Stage 2: The individual stories of each of the families of the 13 of the 15 Power children who married and produced 130 children in the next generation ‑ an average of 10 per family!

I have already completed a detailed history of the eighth child, Edward, and his family, but will revise it to include much additional information given to me by Edward’s granddaughter, Mrs Josie Rheinberger of Bega. Josie celebrated her 90th birthday last May (1983).

Next will be the story of the 15th child, Patrick, whose son Cecil is - so far as I know - the sole surviving member of all that second generation of 130 Power descendants. Cecil lives at Lane Cove and is in his 90th year.

After that I will fulfil a long‑standing promise to write the story the seventh child, John, whose daughter Mary Ann (Mrs Strangwidge) passed on to me not only her great knowledge of the family but also her affection, admiration and even wonder for these forebears of ours whose toughness and determination established the basis for our lives in Australia.

Following that, this order will probably apply: Jane, Ellen, Mary, Henry, George, James, Thomas, Honorah, Bridget and Elizabeth. (All of these stories have now (2009) been written and are posted on the Monaro Pioneers website.)

Stage 3: This will cover the third generation of Australian descendants of the family. The members of this generation were mainly born in the 1890s or during the first decade of this century and therefore, many of them will still be living and able to tell the story of their particular branch of the family. It goes without saying that the recording of their stories and family trees will need to be done by more immediate family members; I alone could not even find the time to contact, let alone write‑up, the stories of the hundreds of Power descendants in this generation (especially living as I do in Melbourne far from the main centre of Power descendants, Sydney).

So I issue a warm invitation to you, the reader of this little history, to join with me in enquiring about and recording the story of our family from this generation on. I will be happy to help you in any way l can.

Bryan Power                                             Address in 2009:
"Wyndham Park”                                        P.O. Box 610
BerginsRoad                                             GISBORNE VIC 3437
ROWILLE VIC 3178                                    (03) 5428 2795
December, 1983.                                       bryanp2@bigpond.com  

This edition has been updated and revised in 2009 prior to being posted on the website www.monaropioneers.com

Bryan Power

This history is dedicated to my dear wife
Mary (Jock") Power
whose unfailing interest and support have
   sustained my efforts to carry this project through. 

Chronology of the Family of John Power and Mary Donovan

1799/1800                      John Power born (probably in Co. Cork or Co. Waterford).
1815                              Mary Donovan born in Co. Cork.
1821/1822                      John Power arrived in Australia.
1836                              Mary Donovan arrived aboard the "James Pattison".
                               Mary employed by Mrs. William Lewis of Hyde Park.
1837                              John and Mary married at St. Patrick's, Parramatta. Living at
                                     Pennant Hills. William Power born.
1838                              William Power died. Thomas Power born.
1839                              Mary Ann Power born. Family still at Pennant Hills.
1840                              Family moved to the Monaro region. Jane born at "Yarra"
                               where John was the supervisor of a 16,000 acre "run" for James Ryan.
1842                              Honorah born at "Creawah" (Creewah), a 16,000 acre run of Conlon and Ryan.
1843                              Elizabeth born.
1844                              John born at "Creerevogh" (Creewah).
1845                              Edward born at "Creerevogh" (Creewah).
1846                              Commissioner for Crown Lands filed inspection report for "Creeva Station".
                                 Supervisor: John Power.
                                 James born at "Creeravogh" (Creewah).
1847                              Henry born at "Creevragh" (Creewah).
1849                              George born at "Creeoragh" (Creewah).
1850                              Ellen born at Bomballo (Bombala).
1852                              Bridget born at Bombala.
1854                              Charles born at Bombala.
1855                              Patrick born at (probably) Cathcart.
1857                              Jane married John Jess at The Dragon Inn near Cathcart.
                                     (Jane's father, John, was then a settler at Lochiel.)
1859                              John Power (Senior) obtained land at Wyndham on
                                     Mataganah Creek (Lot 36, 11 acres; Lot 38, 9 acres).
                                     Thomas married Ann Hyde at Bombala.
1860                              Mary Ann married Thomas Geraghty at Nimmitabel.
1862                              Mary Power (nee Donovan) died at Wyndham on 8 December aged 47.
1864                              John ("Red Johnny") Power married Ann Power at Eden.
                                Honorah married James Agnew at Cooma.
1866                              Edward married Esther White at Wyndham.
1867                              Ellen married Will Ryan at Wyndham.
                               Elizabeth married Henry Wilson at Bega.
1871                              Bridget married James Scullin at Cooma.
1872                              James married Kate Power at Kiah.
                               John Power senior, husband of Mary Donovan, died at Wyndham
                                6 September aged 72.
1876                        Henry married Jane Murphy at Cooma.
1878                              George married Catherine Agnew at Cooma.
1881                              Patrick married Ellen Pendergast at Eden.

A record of the births is on the next page.

The list of births was on a single sheet given to me by Cecil Power, a son of Patrick, the youngest child of John and Mary’s fifteen children. It was a page from the family bible. (On the reverse side there is a picture of St Bridget with the words, “The Mary of Ireland”.)

The list of births from the family bible.

John Power founded our family in Australia.

My research on John’s identity and origins are not as yet conclusive. For a long time I have thought that he possibly arrived in Sydney in the holds of either the convict ship Prince of Orange in 1821 or the Southworth in 1822. He had been born in Ireland in about 1800 and at the age of 19 had been sentenced to 7 years transportation to New South Wales.

By the time of the 1828 Census he was aged 27, had completed his sentence and was possibly employed as a "hutkeeper to Mr Bowman of Bathurst". This John Power at Bathurst was the one listed in the 1828 census as having come on the Prince of Orange and the arithmetic seemed to fit him or the Southworth John Power pretty closely.

From the sixteen convicts bearing the name ‘John Power’ or ‘John Powers’ who came to Australia between 1788 and 1837 and whose records I have examined, the above two seem to be the ones most likely to be "our" John Power. “Our" John Power died in 1872 at the age of 72 indicating he would have been 27 or 28 at the time of the 1828 Census. His death certificate states that he had been in the Colony of N.S.W. for 50 years; thus he would have arrived in 1821 or 1822.

However, there is no John Power listed on the convict indents for the two voyages the Prince of Orange made to Australia. Both voyages originated in England and all of the convicts had been tried in England and only a small number of them had their ”Native Place” recorded as Irish towns on the indent for the voyage that arrived in 1821. {Native Place was not shown at all on the indent for the second voyage that arrived in Hobart in 1822.)

The Southworth John Power’s occupation was shown as bootmaker but there is nothing I have seen that “our” John Power followed this trade.

So, it’s still a puzzle.

Marriage to Mary Donovan

However, the first absolutely definite record of our ancestor is of his wedding in 1837.

John Power married Mary Donovan at St Patrick's Church, Parramatta on 10^th September 1837.

The wedding was performed by Father J C Sumner who, in the previous year, had been the first Catholic priest to be ordained in Australia. The foundation stone of St Patrick's had been laid in that year (by Bishop Polding on St Patrick's Day 1836) and so the wedding of John and Mary would have been among the early ones to be performed there.

John and Mary were both living at Pennant Hills at the time and John's occupation was given as farmer.

The identity of "our" Mary has proved to be almost as elusive as that of John but, thanks to the persistent research of Ken Percival of Canley Vale (a descendant of Jane Power, John and Mary's fourth child), it would appear that at the age of 21 Mary arrived in Sydney aboard the James Pattison on 6th February, 1836, one of 324 emigrants crowded aboard that ship. She was taken into domestic service by a Mrs William Lewis of Hyde Park, Sydney, at a salary of eight pounds per annum.

“Our" Mary died in 1862 at the age of 47. Her death certificate states that she had been in the Colony of New South Wales for 26 years. These dates and ages tally both for her age at arrival ‑ 21 in 1836 ‑ and her year of arrival - 1836. Thus we can be very confident that the Mary Donovan who arrived on the James Pattison is our first Australian maternal ancestor. Mary had been born in County Cork, Ireland, the daughter of John Donovan.

By the end of her first year in the colony, Mary was pregnant to John Power and on 4th August 1837 their first child William was born. William was baptised by Father Sumner on 27th August and a fortnight later the same priest married John and Mary. There was a difference of 15 years in their ages: John was 37 and Mary 22.

In the next 18 years they had 14 more children and all of them (with the exception of William) lived to adulthood, no small achievement in an era of high infant mortality, and a tribute, no doubt, to the devoted parental care they received. The fact, also, that the majority of the children grew up isolated from contact with children of other families may have meant that they avoided the contagion of diseases that in those days put so many youngsters into early graves.

John and Mary's first three children were born in Pennant Hills: William (1837), Thomas (1838), and Mary Ann in August 1839.

The Move to the High Country of the Monaro

However, we know that some time in the fourteen months that followed the birth of Mary Ann, the family moved to the Monaro region because the fourth child, Jane, was born in October 1840 at "Yarra", a 16,000 acre run near Bibbenluke taken up by Conlon & James Ryan. On 31 May 1841 Jane was baptised by Fr Michael McGrath and her godfather was William Power. Given it was the custom amongst the Irish at that time to name their first born boy after the husband’s father, it is possible that this William was John’s father, the grandfather of baby William who had died in 1838. William senior was already superintendent of the Murdering Range run on the Monaro for the squatting licence holder, Peter Imlay, so it is easy to speculate that he was the one who had encouraged John and Mary to leave the comparative comfort and security of Sydney to take up the work at “Yarra”.

Much of what follows in the next few paragraphs has been obtained from a study of a recently published (1983) history of Bibbenluke: "A Big Lookout” by Frank Allen. I recommend this book if you want to know more about the district and the era in which those first Power children grew up.

In 1840 the Monaro was still frontier territory situated beyond the "Limits of Location" in which settlement should take place as laid down by Governor Darling. Thus, James Ryan was a squatter with no legal rights to occupy the land until 1836 when Governor Bourke granted grazing rights for an annual licence fee of ten pounds for each run.

In 1835 a convict assigned to Bomballo Station south of Bibbenluke had taken 27 days to make the journey from Sydney. There is little likelihood that the tracks to the Monaro were any better in 1840 when the family made its way to "Yarra". For Mary, probably pregnant with Jane ‑ and with Thomas and Mary Ann still babies ‑ the trip would have been particularly hard. At the end of this long and exhausting journey little comfort would have awaited her: if anything, it would have been a slab hut with a bark roof and a dirt floor.

"Yarra", miles from the next run, would have been a lonely and probably frightening place. A range of hills running through the station was known as the Murdering Range because a hutkeeper had been killed there by an aborigine named King Charley York. These hills were the site of corroborees, initiations and other tribal ceremonies of the Ngarigo people. Mrs James Ryan was frightened by the presence of the natives and their noises at night. No doubt Mary Power, like the other first white women to come to the Monaro, shared that fear. Moreover, being well beyond the reach of police protection, the whole area for many years was in a state of lawlessness with cattle stealing, sly grogging and murders commonplace.

Despite her fears, Mrs Ryan was strong enough to outlive three husbands. She was Ann Thomas, daughter of Nemiah Thomas, before she married a man named Millikin. After he drowned in the Bombala River in town she married James Ryan who had studied for the priesthood in Ireland before coming to Australia. James drowned while crossing a river on his way home from the races. Mrs Ryan then went on to outlive a third husband named Pieser.

 

This map shows the places where John and Mary Power and their family lived after moving from Sydney. You will see Creewah north of Bibbenluke and Cathcart. The Yarra run was south of Creewah. Wyndham, John and Mary’s final location, is to the east of Cathcart.

The Birth of James Power

When my great‑grandfather James was born in October 1846 the whole of the Monaro was in the grip of a terrible drought and the dried up water holes were choked with the carcasses of dead cattle.

The arrival of James meant that in the midst of these terrible times John and Mary had eight children to provide for, the eldest, Thomas, being only 8 years old.

James was born not at "Yarra" but at "Creewah", another 16,000 acre run near Bibbenluke "owned" by Conlon and James Ryan. James's baptismal certificate records the name as "Creeravogh", while that of the next child, Henry, a year later shows "Creevragh". These spellings recorded by the priest performing the baptisms would be his interpretation of John and Mary's Irish brogue pronunciation of Creewah. They could not correct what the priest had written for neither of them could read or write. Nor could their children. There were no schools in that part of the Monaro when the children were growing up.

Earlier in the year of James's birth the run had been visited by a Commissioner for Crown Lands who filed this inspection report.

 25th March 1846
 CREEVA STATION
 Licence Holders ‑ Conlon & Ryan
 Superintendent ‑ John Power
 Number of Persons ‑ 9
 Cattle ‑ 400
 Horses ‑ 1
 Type ‑ Granite Country
 Watered by the Bombala River
 How wooded - Thick forest
 6 miles from nearest station
 5 acres under wheat

The nine persons, no doubt, were John, Mary and their seven small children.

In the next three years two more children were born while the family was at Creewah: Henry (1847) and George (1849). Between the births of George in July 1849 and Ellen in August 1850 the family possibly moved to Bombala. The baptismal certificates of Bridget (1852) and Charles (1854) indicate that they were born there. However, it could have been that the priest was simply noting the name Bombala because it was the largest town close to Creewah. The baptismal certificate of Patrick, the youngest child, shows Cathcart as his birth place but again it could have been a case of using the name of a nearby settlement that was better known than Creewah.

 

Bibbenluke historian, Frank Allen, stands on the site of the Creewah homestead.

The Family Moves down from the High Country to Wyndham

In 1857, John and Mary's fourth child, Jane, was the first of the family to marry. Her marriage certificate shows that at that time her father, John Power, was a settler at Lochiel, near Pambula.

In 1859 John obtained land at Wyndham on the south bank of Mataganah Creek (Lot 36 ‑ 11 acres and Lot 38 ‑ 9 acres) and settled there permanently.

The following extract from A History of Wyndham by S. J Goodchild tells how the settlement was originally established in two locations:

‘Under the new legislation (the Free Selection Act), Ferdinand Diversi selected land about two miles west of Wyndham along the present Rocky Hall Road. Here he built a store and later operated the first Post Office. Combining farming with the running of the store and Post Office, he endeavoured to draw the population and business centre away from the surveyed township, which by then was practically non-existent.

A court house was built close to Diversi’s and this was visited by a travelling Magistrate. Others to select land west of the town were (John) Power, Shipway and McCausland. The position then was that at the two ends of the town were two small settlements, Honeysuckle and Diversi’s.

A school was built between Wyndham and Honeysuckle but this was burnt down shortly afterwards and lessons were then conducted in a room at the Robbie Burns Inn until the present school was built in 1891.

From that time onwards the town as it was intended eventually came into being and still remains much the same today as it was at the turn of the (20^th) century.’ (page8)

John Power put up a home on his property west of the surveyed township. The house is now completely gone but much of its timber was used to build the front section of the house now (1983) owned by Mrs Love. This home is about 150 yards to the south of the creek across the road on the slope of the hill.

Mrs Ivy Whitby of Bega in an interview on 19 January 1987 told me the following:

“Charlie Umbach bought the farm that had belonged to Ned* on Mataganah Creek. Later my father, Gustavus Holzhauser, bought the farm from Charlie in about 1929. When Dad died the farm was sold to Mrs Love. The old house on the creek bank was demolished and the timber used to build the house across the road. Bob Turbett told Dad that there were a couple of old graves on a little flat by the river and Dad never ploughed that part.”

* Edward (“Ned”) Power, John and Mary’s fourth son, became the owner of this property after his father’s death.

All that remained of John and Mary’s home on the south bank of the Mataganah Creek in 1972

John may have eventually obtained more land at Wyndham and in his will left "unto my sons Charles Powers and Patrick Powers, my two farms of land at Wyndham and all my horses, cattle and other stocks and estate whatsoever".

Charles and Patrick, John's youngest sons, were aged 18 and 16 respectively when their father died in 1872 and did not, in fact, gain possession of the farms which eventually passed into the hands of their brother, Edward ‑ how or why I have not yet discovered.

Within only a couple of years of the family settling in Wyndham, Mary became unwell with what proved to be a terminal illness which she suffered for eleven months before her death in 1862 at the age of 47.

The exact nature of her illness is not stated on her death certificate. However, it must have been an incapacitating one as this entry in the family missal of a friend shows:

honeysuckle flat
May 11th 1862 Mrs Powers
gave Me Bridget Powers

Ann Dunn

Ann Dunn, a close family friend and mother of Esther White (Edwards Power's wife) had here written a solemn receipt for Bridget, John and Mary's youngest daughter, then aged 10. Mary's health had obviously deteriorated to the point where she could no longer care for such a large family.

Only three of the children, Thomas, Jane and Mary Ann, had married, so it is likely that ten children, ranging from 20 year old Honorah down to 7 year old Patrick were still living with their parents. Mary died seven months later, Ann Dunn’s missal entry reading:

dide at Wingham*
          on the 8 of December 1862
          Mrs powers aged 47 years
          May she rest in peace

(* Mrs Dunn obviously intended to write "Wyndham").

Ten years later in 1872 at the age of 72, John died at Wyndham.

Both he and Mary were buried at Wyndham. Sadly, there are no headstones or cemetery records to indicate the location of their graves. However, Cecil Power, the last surviving grandchild of John and Mary, remembered a grave beside the creek on the Power property. He recalled that the grave was surrounded by a small wooden fence.

Children of John Power and Mary Donovan

1. William Power was born on 4th August 1837 and baptised at Parramatta. He died five months later at Pennant Hills on January 16^th 1838.

2. Thomas Power was baptised on 19th August 1838. At the age of 21 he married Ann Hyde of Pambula at Bombala, He was working as a carrier at the time, but later became a well‑known stockman on Kameruka Estate, the huge property at Candelo of the Tooth family, who introduced K.B. (Kent's Best) beer and the Jersey cow to Australia. Thomas and Ann had 11 or 12 children. Thomas died on 11th October 1891 and is buried in Wyndham Cemetery.

3. Mary Ann Power was born in Parramatta on 26th August 1839. She married Thomas Geraghty at Nimmitabel on 2nd July 1860 and their marriage produced 14 children. Mary Ann died at Square Range on 27th September 1927 at the great age of 91. However, Mary Ann had put her age up at the time of her marriage ‑ and never got round to putting it down again! She was buried at Nimmitabel.

4. Jane Power was born on 9th October 1840 at Bibbenluke on 17th September 1857, a few weeks before her 17th birthday. She married John Jess, a post boy, at the Dragon Inn, Taylors Flats near Cathcart. They had 10 children, the first and the tenth being born in the Bombala area, the intervening eight others in the Cooma district, probably at Nimmitabel.

Jane was deserted by her husband and had to do domestic work to support her large family.

5. Honorah Power was born on 11th April 1842 at Creewah near Bombala. She married James Agnew, a farmer of Numeralla at St Patrick's, Cooma on 12th May 1864. James was one of four Agnew brothers who had come from Ireland and who are well remembered as pioneers in the Numeralla district. James and Honorah raised 14 children at Numeralla where, at the age of 82, she died on 14th June 1923.

6. Elizabeth Power. I know very little about Elizabeth. She was born on 9th August 1843 and married a Henry Wilson. Mrs Strangwidge thinks that they had six children ‑ all girls. Elizabeth died at Dungog in 1883 aged 39. She did indeed leave six young daughters ranging in ages from 15 year old Caroline to one year old Susan.

7. John Power was born in the Monaro area on 2nd August 1844. At the age of 19 he married Anne Power of Kiah at Eden. Anne's brother was named John also and was called “Black Johnny" to distinguish him from Anne's husband who was known as "Red Johnny" (because of their hair colour). Black Johnny Power was an Eden shore whaler and famous sculler. His photograph is displayed in the Eden Museum. John and Anne raised nine children, the fifth of whom, Mary Anne (Mrs Strangwidge), I first met in December 1966 when she was 93 years old. She was a wonderful person with a tremendous interest in, and accurate memory of the Power clan. Much of what I have written is based on her information.

John died in Sydney in 1902 and is buried at Rookwood cemetery.

8. Edward Power (normally known as "Ned”) was born on 29th August 1848. He married Esther White at Honeysuckle near Wyndham on 5th March 1866. At the time he was a carrier. Edward and Esther raised twelve children, all of whom were born in Wyndham. Edward and his youngest brother, Patrick, were the only two members of the family to live their lives out in Wyndham. Edward became the owner of his father's farms there, although John had bequeathed them to the two youngest boys, Charles and Patrick.

Edward died at the Pambula Hospital on 19th April 1921 at the age of 75 and is buried in Wyndham Cemetery.

9. James Power was born at "Creeravogh Manaroo” (Creewah) on 2^nd October 1846. On 10th June 1872 he married Catherine (“Kate") Power of Kiah. Kate was a sister of Anne, "Red Johnny" Power's wife. Jim worked as a labourer or carrier, but at one stage ran the Pier Hotel, Eden. It was to this hotel that the body of Flora McKillop, the mother of Mother Mary McKillop, founder of the Josephite Order, was brought following the wreck of the Ly‑ee‑Moon. Flora was one of 71 people who lost their lives when the ship ran aground below Green Cape lighthouse near Eden on 29th May  1886. Ann, Kate and Mrs Strangwidge snr (Mary Ann's mother‑in-law) laid out the body which was later collected by Mother Mary's cousin. As a mark of gratitude, Mother Mary presented the family with a large portrait of Christ, crowned with thorns. This picture was in the possession of the Lindwall family in Sydney for many years but has been donated to the Josephite Order’s Mary McKillop Museum in North Sydney.

James worked on the Yowaka gold field at Pambula before going with Kate and some of their younger children to Dellicknora in north‑east Victoria where he managed a quartz crushing battery. Later they moved to Broken Hill.

Jim died there on 9th September 1912 aged 66.

10.  Henry Power was born at Creewah on 10th November 1847. He married Jane Murphy, a school teacher, at Cooma on 12th July 1876. Henry and Jane had six children. Henry and Jane died in Sydney.

11. George Power was born on 4th July 1849 at Creewah. On 5th February 1878 he married Catherine Agnew who was a relative of Honorah's husband, James Angew. George worked as a labourer in the Cooma Area.

George and Catherine had four children. George died in Cooma on 12^th July 1935 aged 87.

12. Ellen Power was born at Bombala on 25th August 1850. At the age of 16 she married William Ryan at Wyndham in 1867. They had nine children, the youngest, Joe, being born after Will's death at Omeo in 1882. To support her large family Ellen became housekeeper at "Springvale", the property of William Pendergast near Omeo. (The Pendergasts were famous mountain horsemen.) The confidence gained in domestic service led her to take on a hotel, and involvement with the hotel business has become a tradition with her descendants. Another tradition carried on by the descendants of Joe Ryan, is the use of their Australian maternal ancestor's name, Donovan, as a given name.

Ellen died at the Club Hotel, Dandenong on 16th June 1936 aged 86. The headstone on her grave in Dandenong Cemetery states that she and William were "Pioneers of Omeo".

13. Bridget Power was born at Bombala on 14th June 1852. She married an Irishman, James Scullin, at St Patrick's, Cooma on 25th May 1871. On their small potato farm at Numerella, near Cooma, they brought up 14 children. Bridget died at Cooma on 18th July 1941 at the age of 89.

14. Charles Power was born on 14th January 1854. So far as I know he never married. He and his brother Patrick, 18 and 16 years old respectively at the time of their father's death in 1872, were sole beneficiaries of John's will. However, neither of them took possession of the farms at Wyndham. When Ellen's husband, Will Ryan, died in 1882 leaving her with nine children to rear, Charles went to her and never returned to live in N.S.W., The 1912 Electoral Roll for Mernda, Vic. shows that he was a prospector at Alexandra while Joe Ryan and his mother Ellen were running the Exchange Hotel in   that town. Charles is buried at Warragul, Victoria.

15. Patrick Power was born at Cathcart on 9th November 1855 and so was only 6 when his mother died in 1862 and 16 when his father died in 1872. He grew up to be a quiet and shy man but became a sufficiently accomplished fiddler to play the violin at the Wyndham dances. Patrick was the only one of the Power men to go bald. When playing at the dances he wore a cap.

On 10th July 1881 he married Ellen Pendergast of Kiah at Eden. They had 10 children, the last three being triplets. Their seventh child, Cecil Power, is now (December 1983) the only surviving member of all the 130 second generation Powers. Cecil turned 89 in May this year. He and his wife, Olive, have been great friends to me over the years and have helped me tremendously in preparing this history.

Patrick died of Bright's Disease on 29th April 1905 and is buried with two of his triplet children (who had died at the age of 7 months), in Wyndham Cemetery.